This invention relates to personal watercraft. As used herein, "personal watercraft" means jet skis, such as those made by SEADOO.RTM., POLARIS.RTM., ARCTIC CAT.RTM., KAWASAKI.RTM. and other companies. Such watercraft have a hull, including a floatation body, generally low in the water, housing a drive engine and other drive apparatus. The hull typically includes a central body portion upstanding from a gunwale which extends about the left and right sides, and the rear, of the watercraft. A longitudinally-extending seat is typically mounted on the central body portion, for supporting the driver and one or more passengers (typically no more than two passengers plus the driver) such that the driver and passengers straddle the seat when riding on the watercraft. The seat is thus between the two legs of each rider, including the driver. The gunwale is close to the water line. The rider's feet are also close to the water line, near the gunwale. Other than the gunwale, there is generally little or no watercraft structure between the rider's feet and the outer edge of the personal watercraft. The personal watercraft drive and direction controls are generally incorporated into a control console located in front of the seat, for manipulation and other use by the driver.
The longitudinally-extending seat generally encourages forward-facing riders to lean forward. The front rider is the driver, who holds onto an opposing pair of hand grips extending from the watercraft control console. Riders sitting behind the driver hold onto the driver, or the rider in front of them, to maintain their position, and to stabilize them, as the personal watercraft accelerates and/or moves in accord with the power and direction control exercised by the driver. This arrangement is generally acceptable for the driver and forward-facing riders.
More recent models of personal watercraft are sized and powered by water-jet engines, to pull a water skier. Such watercraft typically have a ski tow ring mounted thereon for attaching a tow rope used to tow the water skier. According to USA Coast Guard regulations, when any watercraft is towing a water skier, the watercraft crew must include a spotter who watches the water skier and advises the watercraft driver of the disposition of the water skier. The spotter faces the water skier in order to immediately observe any changes in the skier's disposition, thus to promptly notify the driver of any such change. Thus, on personal watercraft, when towing a water skier, the passenger/spotter is a second person on the watercraft, in addition to the driver, and in addition to the skier being towed. Given the longitudinally-extending seat, the spotter is located behind the driver, and faces in a rearward direction, when the watercraft is pulling the skier.
Because of the rearward orientation, the spotter encounters a problem in that, on conventional personal watercraft, the spotter has no readily available watercraft structure to hold onto for lateral (front-to-rear, or side-to-side) support. Thus, in the rearward orientation, the stability, and accordingly, the safety, of the spotter are in jeopardy. Namely, in view of the design of conventional personal watercraft, and considering the high degree of maneuverability of such (small) watercraft, it is difficult for a rear-facing rider to maintain a stable position during normal operation of the watercraft. Such watercraft are highly mobile and maneuverable such that all riders need something to hang onto, thus to avoid being thrown about the watercraft, or being thrown from the watercraft into the water. The driver holds onto the hand grips. The rear-facing rider has little or nothing to hold onto.
Given the longitudinally-extending seat, the tendency for any rider is to lean toward the front of his/her body. For a rear-facing rider, the tendency is thus to lean toward the rear of the watercraft. Since there is typically nothing effective for the rear-facing rider to grasp onto with his/her hands, thus to effectively stabilize himself/herself on the watercraft, the rider has a sensation, and an actual natural tendency, to lurch forward (toward the rear of the watercraft) or to the side, and thus to fall off the personal watercraft, in response to sudden maneuvers, especially accelerations and turns. This is especially true when the personal watercraft is beginning to accelerate from a stop to pull a skier.
For skiing, rapid acceleration is critical to the skier. However, such rapid acceleration which is so important to the skier is a threat to the safety of an improperly-supported spotter on the personal watercraft. For example, under rapid acceleration, the front of the watercraft tends to rise quickly, thus to lift the watercraft at a steep angle up onto a planing relationship with the water at skiing speed. Given this environment, a rider with nothing effective to hang onto can easily be thrown off the personal watercraft. Other changes in speed, and changes in direction, can also cause a rider to fall from the watercraft or to be otherwise destabilized.
One known attempt to address the problem is provision of a handle secured to the watercraft at or adjacent the rear of the watercraft seat, and wherein the operative handle is, and remains, at or below the top support surface of the seat. This arrangement requires a rider to reach downward to grasp the handle at or below the height of the top of the seat. The problem with this arrangement is that the center of gravity of the rider is a significant distance above the handle. Thus, while the handle does provide some support, the support is grossly insufficient to provide the needed support to the rider during normal maneuvering of the watercraft. Further, such handle can act as a fulcrum about which the rider can be pivoted/thrown, thus increasing the risk of the rider being thrown and falling from the watercraft during normal usage of the watercraft. This risk is especially apparent at start-up from a stop, as the front of the watercraft rises relative to the rear of the watercraft. Namely, the low location of the handle provides little or no assistance at the height of the rider's effective center of gravity.
Even if the rider does not fall from the watercraft, with the handle located below the effective center of gravity, the rider tends to lean forwardly (toward the rear of the watercraft) and requires substantial ongoing exertion of muscular energy of the arms and shoulders in utilizing such handle to obtain what small stability benefit the rider may obtain during e.g. gentle maneuvering of the watercraft. Such an arrangement is uncomfortable for the rider, thereby reducing the enjoyment of riding on the watercraft.
While it is common for a rider, including the driver, to fall from a personal watercraft, and while it is not expected that this invention will prevent all falls from personal watercraft, it is an object of this invention to provide a brace assembly for use on personal watercraft which will assist a rear-facing rider in stabilizing himself/herself to thereby reduce the number of falls from personal watercraft.